The Heart of a Smith

Chapter 54: Before the Storm

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

In the evening, Li Sui decided to stay in the hospital. He got some bedsheets and blankets, then he directly slept in the CCU. That was not in line with hospital rules, but when they thought about how he would be separated from Lu Shang very soon, and that this might be the last chance for Li Sui to be by Lu Shang’s side, even the hospital head did not object. He asked the nurse to get Li Sui some hand warmers to avoid freezing.

Perhaps Li Sui was overly tired, when he laid down flat on the floor, he just couldn’t sleep. Li Sui turned over to look at Lu Shang, in between them were the distance of just one arm, Li Sui could sense the breathing under the oxygen mask, they were weak and slow. Lu Shang had electrodes on his chest, and there were various instruments hooked to his body. Just looking at them made Li Sui sad, he wanted to hold Lu Shang’s cold hands and slowly warm them up or cuddle him to sleep from his back, just like how he usually would. However, Lu Shang’s current state did not allow that.

The IV drip next to the bed made constant dripping sounds, Li Sui looked at him for a long time. After a while, he spoke softly, “Good night.”

The next day, before dawn, two people entered the CCU in secret. Following that, a stretcher bed was pushed out of the CCU discreetly. Almost immediately afterwards, another stretcher bed that looked exactly the same was pushed in and placed on the empty spot.

At 9 a.m. that day, the hospital formally issued a death certificate. Because of Lu Shang’s special status, a special coroner arrived at RuiGe. After a seemingly careful examination, the coroner issued a definitive report on the cause of death, which was heart failure.

As soon as the report came out, the news was like a runaway person. It spread all over the business sector in less than a whole day, there were great uproar amongst Tong Yan’s higher-ups and even the smaller employees. A newspaper even did a special report on it. After all, Lu Shang had done a lot of charity work in recent years. Although he was a low-key person, his name was not unfamiliar amongst those who worked in the sector.

For the entire time, Li Sui remained silent, he spoke nothing, no matter who the person might be. Li Sui’s mind was completely preoccupied by Lu Shang, he didn’t get much sleep for the past few days, plus he had a few hundred milliliters of blood drawn from him last night. His complexion was poor, and he didn’t even attempted to hide that.

Xiao Tang called Li Sui immediately once she heard about the news, she called to ask if it was true. After receiving an affirmative answer, she began crying. Li Sui could not say any comforting words and just silently hung up the phone.

In the whole company, the calmest person was most likely Liu XinTian, he looked like he had expected this from the very beginning. He was full of spirit, as if Tong Yan was already in his bag right now, he also had an extremely contemptuous look on him, especially towards Li Sui.

Li Sui had a lot on his mind, so he did not talk to Liu XinTian at all. Li Sui used handling Lu Shang’s company documents as a pretext to meet with lawyer Xe.

“I see, even I thought…” After listening to Li Sui, lawyer Xe was shocked and found the plan to be extremely bold.

“Tomorrow’s shareholders’ meeting, I need your help,” Li Sui said.

Xe WeiLan quickly closed the door, then he whispered nervously, “You have 40%, plus the 8% that were originally on our side, and the 6% that you fought for, you have a total of 54%. What are you going to do next? Will you just fight him head-on like this at tomorrow’s meeting?”

Li Sui grinded his chin on his hands that were clasped together, he asked, “You said before that, two-thirds of the total voting rights attending the meeting are needed to change the company’s constitution?”

Xe WeiLan was slightly surprised, “Yes, but we still lack a lot before we can get two-thirds.”

“Does that mean, if a shareholder does not attend the meeting, said person’s share will not be counted, is that so?” Li Sui asked.

Xe WeiLan hesitated for a second, then he gradually understood what Li Sui meant, he couldn’t suppress his shock, “Do you mean, you want to…”

Xe WeiLan was only planning to stabilize Tong Yan at the shareholders’ meeting, with the current resources they had, that goal should be barely attainable. He did not expect Li Sui to be so ambitious, he was not only aiming to win against Liu XinTian at the meeting, but to break Tong Yan out of its current binds altogether.

Changing the company constitutions and the nature of the company were always things that Lu Shang wanted to do. Lu Shang had tried doing so in the past but had never succeeded. If Li Sui was successful this time, the benefits would be more than obvious for both for the company and for the Lu family as a whole. Previously, because of Liu XinTian and the others’ interference, Lu Shang’s plan of reform had been repeatedly blocked. Lu Shang was still worrying about it up until he got seriously ill, showing that this was somewhat of an unfulfilled wish of his.

When Xe WeiLan looked over to Li Sui, the youngster across the desk from him was contemplating and concocting a plan. The sophisticated look on his face was somewhat similar to that of Lu Shang’s.

“There must be something wrong with Liu XinTian’s funds.” Li Sui interrupted Xe WeiLan’s thoughts.

“Why do you say that?”

“He is just an investor of Tong Yan like all everyone else. He has no other companies or jobs. He lost a huge sum of money last year because of Tong Xin, so where did he get all so much money to bribe the rest of the shareholders to his side?”

Xe WeiLan did more or less suspected about that, but guessing was useless, “But how are we going to get evidences on such short notice?”

Li Sui frowned and thought, “Let me think about it.”

Before leaving, Li Sui went to Lu Shang’s office. Most of the things inside were already cleared out. Uncle Yuen was packing Lu Shang’s personal belongings into boxes. Li Sui rummaged through the box randomly, there wasn’t many things inside, just some bottles of medicine, some work diaries, some old photos, books and letters, plus a few pots of green plants Lu Shang kept.

Although Lu Shang wasn’t always in the company, but he did hire people to help clean the office and water the plants, so all the plants were growing prosperously. Li Sui fiddled with the leaves for a bit and looked around the empty office. Suddenly, an intense emotion came into being. Lu Shang’s life was so simple, so much that his world seemed to have nothing beside Li Sui.

“Shall we go now?” Uncle Yuen picked up the box and asked.

Li Sui looked back at the office one final time and said, “Let’s go.”

When they walked out of the office, they ran into Secretary Yeung. Their eyes collided, and the latter quickly avoided Li Sui. Li Sui stagnated and asked Uncle Yuen to go downstairs first. Li Sui then followed after her.

Just after a turn, Secretary Yeung stopped and asked, “What do you want?”

“I want to help you,” Li Sui said.

“Help me?” Secretary Yeung seemed to have heard something funny. She turned back around but was stopped by Li Sui.

“I know you need money.” Li Sui lowered his head to look at her, he was a lot taller than her, when he stretched out his arms, there were basically no room for her to dodge.

Secretary Yeung raised her head up and gave up hiding the wound at the corner of her mouth.

“Why do you want to help me?” she asked coldly.

Li Sui smiled softly, “For the sake of the coffee that you once made for me.”

“I haven’t fallen to the point that I need your help.”

“Fallen?” Li Sui disagreed with her statement. “You are Liu XinTian’s lover, I am Lu Shang’s lover. There shouldn’t be any difference in status between you and me, and there’s absolutely no reason for you to despise me. Look at yourself now, look at the injury on your face, Liu XinTian did that, right? Now, look at me, I am one of the biggest shareholders in Mu Sheng. Which side is more dependable? Isn’t that obvious?”

Secretary Yeung flinched slightly.

Li Sui looked at her and continued, “I’m trying to get on your good side, it is me that’s asking. I’m asking for your help. It’s just one simple question, do you want the money or not?”

Secretary Yeung stood still for a while. She was discouraged and she gave in, “What do you want me to do?”

In his heart, Li Sui secretly relaxed, he looked around and whispered to her, “Where did Liu XinTian’s money come from? I think you should know better than I do what I’m referring at. I need proof of it.”

After Li Sui got in the car, Uncle Yuen glanced at the rearview mirror and asked, “Are we going back to the Lu family house? Somebody’s following us.”

Li Sui was so tired that he felt dizzy, and he just blurted out going to the hospital. Then he realized, now that Lu Shang was “deceased”, if he ran to the hospital and stayed there all night, it would just arouse unnecessary suspicion and increase the risk of discovery.

Tomorrow will be the shareholders’ meeting. With Tong Yan on the line, Liu XinTian would naturally spend all his effort in monitoring Li Sui, so as to avoid any unexpected incidents in the upcoming meeting.

Li Sui thought about it and said, “Find a hotel, the busier the area is, the better.”

Uncle Yuen brought him to the city center, below the hotel was a night market, it was as bustling as ever even after midnight. Li Sui went inside the hotel, he booked a room, then he took a shower and a nap. After it was quite late in the night, he looked at the clock and went out in disguise.

Fortunately, he had not forgotten the anti-tracking skills he learned in the training camp. Li Sui slipped out of the back door and mixed into the crowd. Then he quickly got onto an old pickup truck and drove to the suburbs, he was still not rest assured.

The place they would be picking up Lu Shang had long been arranged. It would happen in a small airport in the suburbs, the private jet had already landed there by the time Li Sui arrived. Li Sui sat in the car and waited for a while, then he saw two Iveco vans driving into the airport one after another. A stretcher bed was pushed out from the back of one of the vans. At the same time, several people got out of the other vans, they helped pull the stretcher bed towards the jet.

A short distance away, Li Sui was still inside the car, he could see a glimpse of Lu Shang lying on the bed amongst the people, and his heart tightened.

Watching people push the bed farther and farther away from him, Li Sui had been suppressing his worries of the entire day and couldn’t stop himself from rushing out of the car. He tried stopping himself again, but it was useless, he opened the door and ran over.

Leung ZiRui who was wearing a mask, was directing everyone seriously. When he saw Li Sui appear out of nowhere, he was so stunned that he had forgotten to stop him.

Li Sui walked past him directly, he pushed through the rest of the people and held Lu Shang’s hand that was on the stretcher bed.

“You must live… until I come to find you…” Li Sui said earnestly, leaning down to Lu Shang’s closed eyes, he printed a light kiss on his eyelid, “…I love you.”

The people around him soon pushed him back out, the stretcher bed was pushed onto the jet. There weren’t enough time, Leung ZiRui didn’t have time to reprimand Li Sui, so he only waved to him, then commanded the pilot to close the hatch.

Li Sui stood still at the same spot, he could still feel the cold temperature of Lu Shang’s hand linger on his own. He watched as the jet slowly lifted off the ground, he felt his heart being taken away along with the jet. He didn’t even know when the vans left, when he finally came to, his eyes were already filled with tears.

Snow began to fall again, cold wind blew through the airport, it was as if the planet was whimpering in the cold. Li Sui stood alone in the snow and stayed there quietly for a long time before returning to the car.

Before he could relax, Li Sui grabbed the steering wheel and drove the car out of the airport. This time, he did not only wish to protect Lu Shang, but also Tong Yan, the Lu household and Lu Shang’s unfinished wishes.

In the snow, a jet and a car moved in the opposite direction quickly. They were like two soldiers heading to the front lines. Right after a brief meet and farewell, they had to rush to their individual battlefields.

In the middle of the night, Li Sui returned to the hotel, unable to sleep, he began organizing the documents he had in hand in preparation of tomorrow’s meeting. Just when he had gone through half of his things, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” Li Sui asked.

“Room service.”

Li Sui recognized the familiar female voice and opened the door.

Secretary Yeung was wrapped up in thick clothes and stuffed him a bag of documents. After they exchanged a look, she left without saying a word.

Li Sui returned to the room and opened the bag. There were several documents, including Liu XinTian’s departure records, the bank statement of the training school he had, and his tax payment records.”

The materials were obviously taken in a hurry with the mobile phone camera. Li Sui read them carefully and compared them, soon he noticed a strange pattern: Liu XinTian would go to Macau once a month, and every time he returned, a group of new students would enroll in his training school.

Could there be such coincidences, it wasn’t like he went to Macau to get students. Li Sui frowned and looked over the tax records of the training school again. It was not difficult to notice that the monthly tax amount was obviously not in line with the school’s income.

Gradually, he had an idea in his head. He couldn’t afford to hesitate anymore, so he immediately called Uncle Yuen and drove to the Meng’s house.

“Miss Meng?” Uncle Yuen was puzzled.

“Yes, she’s the only one who can help us now.”

Uncle Yuen disagreed, “But Miss Meng’s husband is standing with Liu XinTian.”

“Yes, but Tong Yan’s shareholder is Miss Meng herself, right? Only she herself has the right to exercise her rights as Tong Yan’s shareholder.” Li Sui argued back with reasons.

Although Uncle Yuen wanted to say something, but seeing that Li Sui was so persistence, he refrained himself from doing so.

The two of them drove out of the hotel with zero discretion. Liu XinTian’s people were puzzled, they drove behind them the entire way. They wanted to follow them but were also afraid of being discovered. Finally, they saw their car driving into the Meng’s house, so they gave up following. Li Sui moved his gaze away from the rearview mirror and scoffed coldly. Li Sui didn’t even need to think to know that Liu XinTian was most likely not worried. In his eyes, Li Sui’s current actions were just no different from begging in the face of thirst, it was something not even worth thinking about for Liu XinTian.

Meng XinYou did not look pleased when she walked out, given that she was disturbed in the middle of the night. She yawned until she saw Li Sui. She paused and said, “It’s you?”

Needless to say, she immediately knew what Li Sui was here for. She asked a servant to make two cups of coffee.

“Sit down.”

Li Sui sat opposite to her and apologized, “I’m sorry for disturbing you this late at night. ”

Meng XinYou waved her hand and sighed, “I’m sorry with what happened to Lu Shang.”

Li Sui’s eyes drooped at her words, “Even if he’s gone, the company can’t disappear too. I’m here today to talk to you in private. I think it’s necessary for you to know something.”

“Do you want to play the affection card?” Meng XinYou asked.

Li Sui did not speak.

“Xiao Li, I don’t want to bully you. Even if it’s Lu Shang himself who’s sitting here today, I won’t wreck the decisions made by my family because of personal reasons,” sighed Meng XinYou.

“You may not understand, but to people like us, the interests of the whole family are above anything else. Even though I liked Lu Shang, but you know that those are completely different things.”

“I understand.” Li Sui nodded.

“If you can understand,” Meng XinYou said with regret, she loosened her shoulders and continued, “Then you also know that I can’t stand on your side at tomorrow’s meeting.”

“You misunderstood. I’m not here to ask you to stand with us,” Li Sui said. “I’m asking you not to attend tomorrow’s meeting.”

Meng XinYou was stunned, “Not to attend?”

“Yes,” said Li Sui, his temperament was neither overly humble nor arrogant. “I’ll handle the rest on my own. I only ask for you not to involve yourself in this matter.”

The request aroused Meng XinYou’s interest, “Why? Tell me the reasoning behind it.”

“The reason is that if you and Liu XinTian are on the same front, your family will inevitably be implicated.” As he spoke, Li Sui took out the documents in the bag and pushed them over to Meng XinYou. “These are some information about Liu XinTian. I think you will be very interested in knowing what he has been up to recently and whether it is beneficial or harmful to your family.”

Meng XinYou looked at him doubtfully, she picked up the documents and began reading them

“He colluded with some people in opening illegal, underground casinos in Macau. Each month, he would get a large sum of money, but as they were from illegal means, those funds could not enter the mainland market directly. As such, he opened a training school to make the funds clean, he forged student records, and listed the income as tuition fees.”

Li Sui said, “The Meng family is held in high esteem, your position is sensitive. To speak frankly, once this matter is exposed, it would be very difficult for your family to be unscathed.”

Meng XinYou looked down at the documents again, her expression turned serious, “Where did you get this information?”

“Of course, I have my ways.”

Meng XinYou heard him and looked up at the young man in front of her. She didn’t meet Li Sui much, her only exchanges with him were when he was around with Lu Shang. So, in her impression, Li Sui was just a pretty boy who was well taken care of. Now, after careful observations, she found that every part of this person was unfamiliar to her, not only in appearance, but also in his temperament and the way he spoke.

“That’s all I have to say.” Li Sui stood up to say goodbye after looking at the clock, “No matter what happens tomorrow, thank you very much. Thank you for all the care the Meng family had shown for Lu Shang over the past years.”

Meng XinYou looked uncertain, and as he walked out, she called out, “Wait a minute!”

When Li Sui turned around, Meng XinYou’s lonely and long face, which had remained unchanged for years, finally loosened a little, “Lu Shang… Before he left, there was no… Did he left behind any words?”

Li Sui looked at her and whispered, “He said… if one day Tong Yan went out of control, he want me to let go.”

After saying that, Li Sui did not look back at Meng XinYou again and left.

When the car left the Meng’s house, the sky began to glow, and Li Sui leaned back on the back of the seat. Looking out of the window silently, he watched the morning rays seep through the leaves of rows and rows of trees.

Uncle Yuen thought that he must had met a wall and wanted to comfort him.

Unexpectedly, before he spoke, Li Sui suddenly asked, “What time is it now?”

“Half past five.”

“Half past five…” Li Sui muttered, “Lu Shang should have arrived already.”

Uncle Yuen glanced at him through the rearview mirror and asked, “Are you going back to the hotel now?”

“No, I’m going to get breakfast and pick up lawyer Xe.” Li Sui sat up and loosened his tie.

“One can only fight with a full stomach.”